Fire based EMS

[brentoli]

How did I not see that coming?

Really?

[JPINFV]

It's easy, Brent!

They just get trucks built kinda like squmpers, but instead of a patient compartment, there is a big box full of asphalt patch in-between the cab and the hose bed. They can call them ass-pumpers.

Wow, those fire fighters would be the butt of all jokes. It would be like turning a brown eye to the fire department. The public works department would have to be really anal about how well the fire fighters patch the roads.

[spoil:3c1d06fbf7]sphincter[/spoil:3c1d06fbf7]

[Dustdevil]

I wonder if Shayne is going to come here and tell us what a revolutionarily brilliant idea the ass-pumper is?

Seriously, any city manager with half a brain would buy that idea in a heartbeat! Hell, I should start a consulting company to peddle that idea to municipalities worldwide and get rich like Jack Stout!

[brentoli]

That is just egging it on Dust.

Good Job

[Redcell19512]

I can see the drawbacks and benefits.

How would the assure 24 hour coverage?

Do they just leave the pot hole truck behind?

How many men are on the crew?

The paid guys would ensure coverage during the day when most of the volunteers would be at work. As far as leaving the pot hole truck behind....I have no idea. I really don't think this plan went any further than discussions at council meetings. The details were porbably never worked out.

We're talking about a small town here anyway. This fire dept probably does 100 calls per year with most of those being automatic fire alarms and vehcile accidents. The smarter move would be for the dozens of fire companies in the area to merge and form regional services rather than continuing the notion that every town needs it's very own fire department.

[Spock]

I know of at least 3 small towns in my area that allow borough employees that are volunteer firefighters to respond to fire calls while working. This greatly helps their daytime response and they get the engine on the road faster than anybody else in their area.

Live long and prosper.

Spock

[Richard B the EMT]

I now have this mental picture of an engine company and an ambulance at the scene of a street patching job. The Air-Raid sirens sound, and, except for 2 workers who stay with the asphalt dump truck, everyone else runs to the fire and EMS vehicles, leaving under emergency lights and siren to a call.

[Spock]

Even better, they are working on a sewer back up!

Actually, the towns I have mentioned only allow response to fire calls. EMS in those places are career based.

Live long and prosper.

Spock

[kristo]

I now have this mental picture of an engine company and an ambulance at the scene of a street patching job. The Air-Raid sirens sound, and, except for 2 workers who stay with the asphalt dump truck, everyone else runs to the fire and EMS vehicles, leaving under emergency lights and siren to a call.

Hehe, this reminds me of the village which I grew up in. A small village (approx. 300 people), a hybrid fire dept (paid per call, but had other jobs and responded on a similar basis as volunteers) with one 1961 Bedford fire engine (I'm born in 1983, so even then, the engine was old). When there was a fire, whoever noticed it was to go to the fire department building and push a button on the outer wall. This activated an old air raid siren. When it sounded, everyone in the village dropped whatever they were doing and started driving around and looking for the fire. If they found it, they stood around and waited for the fire dept. The fire dept. went to the firehouse, got the engine, and did the same (drove around the village, looking for the fire).

As for EMS, provided by a town 30 minutes away during summer, sometimes completely unavailable during winter (7-9 months a year), as the village is rather isolated by mountains and due to snow, the road was usually only open one day per week (courtesy of Icelandic Road Administration :? )

We did have volunteer SAR, though. My mother was actually transported across the mountain in January 1988 by ICE-SAR in a snow mobile, in labour. They reached the hospital in time and my little brother was born there. In the early nineties, though, my father had a heart attack, and had to wait for several hours without medical attention, for the way across the mountain to be opened. Luckily, he survived.

This got better over the years, now there's a 15 km tunnel through the mountain, fire/PD/EMS provided by the same town as before, but now it's 15 minutes away (through the tunnel) and available 24/7 all year long, and dispatched/controlled by the country's single dispatch centre that controls all EMS/fire/SAR/PD/coast guard/etc.

[BenDover]

http://www.massfiretrucks.com/Cambridge_Rescue_1.jpg